How to partition hard drives in vista

Have you used the Disk Management console tool in Windows Vista to shrink a volume? If so, please drop by the discussion area and let us know what you think about this new feature. Greg Shultz is a freelance Technical Writer. Previously, he has worked as Documentation Specialist in the software industry, a Technical Support Specialist in educational industry, and a Technical Journalist in the computer publishing industry. Accessing the Disk Management console tool To access the Disk Management console tool in Windows Vista, you can either right-click on My Computer and select the Manage command from the context menu or you can access the Run dialog box, type Diskmgmt.

Repartitioning As you can see in Figure A, this example GB hard disk is currently configured as a single partition. Editor's Picks. The best programming languages to learn in Check for Log4j vulnerabilities with this simple-to-use script. TasksBoard is the kanban interface for Google Tasks you've been waiting for. Paging Zefram Cochrane: Humans have figured out how to make a warp bubble.

Comment and share: Repartition your hard disk on-the-fly with Windows Vista. Show Comments. Hide Comments. My Profile Log out. Join Discussion. Add your Comment. By against, extended partitions you can create more than 4 partitions.

More information in our article : " Why and how to partition a hard drive? Because Windows no longer allows choose the type of partition, creating multiple partitions is much simpler than before. To create multiple partitions simples volumes , refer to the previous point but indicate a smaller size than the default size to be able to create multiple volumes. In our case, we will indicate a smaller size than the size indicated in order to create other simple volumes.

Continue to create simple volumes on our hard drive and try to exceed the limit of 4 partitions per disk drive. As you can see, our first 3 simple volumes are primary partitions and other simple volumes have become logical drives in an extended partition that Windows automatically created. If you go to the desktop or computer , you will see that the primary partitions and logical drives are displayed in the same way.

To store your data, this system is no problem of compatibility. By against, if you decide to create a multi-boot, you will see that the use of primary partitions is recommended. Total or partial reproduction of this site is prohibited and constitutes an infringement punishable by articles L.

Registration Password lost? Initialization Create a single partition on the entire hard drive Create multiple partitions for a MultiBoot or normal use 1. Initialization To begin, many people are asking : "Why my new hard drive is not recognized by Windows?

Create a single partition on the entire hard drive As indicated at the beginning of this tutorial, partitioning allows to separate your data and generally separate the OS and data. The "New Simple Volume" window is displayed. Leave the default size indicated that this partition is created on the entire disk. When you go to the workstation, your partition will be displayed.

Create multiple partitions for a Multiboot or normal use Now we will explain how to partition your hard drive correctly. Firstly, there are two types of partitions : the main partitions : to install an operating system partition or to store data. I could shrink the volume to only half of its size. Say initially a 60GB dark disk can be shrunk only to 30 and I think this applies mainly to primary partition. Great tutorial. Can you repartition drives in Vista or do it have to be unallocated space?

Nirmal, You can shrink the volume to whatever size that is available. Not necessarily half. This available space may further be restricted by snaphots and pagefiles enabled on that drive. Aseem, Thanks and yes you can and that is what this article is about…you have to shrink an existing drive to create unallocated space and then use this space to create the new partition. You can shrink, extend, create, and format partitions. What do you mean when you say that you could never change the size of a partition in vista?

Infact in vista, you can resize the partition extend or shrink the volume size , without loosing data and without the need for a third party tool like Partition Magic. But backing up your data, in the drive that you want to partition, is always a good practice, before you actually carry out the partition.